cookie n. a screen, board, card, or cloth, cut with shapes or holes, used to throw a light pattern when shooting film or television; the light pattern thrown by such a device. Also cucoloris, cucolorus, cucaloris, kukaloris, kookaloris, cuke, coo-koo, kook, dapple sheet, ulcer, gobo. Etymological Note: A claimed etymology is that kukaloris is Greek for “breaking of light,” but there seems to be no evidence to support this, nor can the etymological claims in the 2001 cite below be verified. Another claim is that it is named after its inventor, a Mr. Cucoloris; however, this, too, lacks supporting evidence. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
You must log in to post a comment.
Chocolate Gravy 08/05/2017: Say you have an acquaintance you always see at the dog park or the playground. But one night, you run into them at the movies,... [more]
Fickle Finger of Fate 07/29/2017: A young woman wants a family-friendly way to describe a statement that's fraudulent or bogus, but all the words she can think of sound old-fashioned.... [more]
Flop Sweat 07/24/2017: Gerrymandering draws political boundaries to tip elections towards certain political parties. Originally, the word was pronounced "GARY-mandering" with a hard "g." But why? And why... [more]
Smile Belt 07/17/2017: The only time you'll ever see the sun's outer atmosphere is during a full solar eclipse, when sun itself is completely covered. That hazy ring... [more]
A Shoo-in 07/10/2017: This week it’s butterflies, belly flowers, plot bunnies, foxes, and cuckoos. Also, writing advice from Mark Twain and a wonderful bit of prose from Sara... [more]
I think it’s more like “cookie cutter”, i.e they seem stamped out in the same way as one would make cookies in different designs.
That’s a logical theory, but there’s no evidence to support it, not even enough to mention it as a theory. I’m still looking, though.
(One theory I saw but also has zero evidence supporting it, was that “cookie” came first, then someone invented the word “cucaloris” which it was supposedly short for.)